Often bone fractures are reduced surgically and the fracture fragments are immobilized by a metal plate which spans the fracture and has screws going into the plate on either side to secure the fracture fragments while also securing reduction of the fracture so that anatomic healing of the fracture can occur by new bone growth. Ideally, fractures mend in three months or less. In some cases healing takes up to one year. It is therefore essential the repaired fracture stays held securely together for at least the typical three months, if not longer and up to a year.
The metals of plates for fracture are typically stainless steel or other non-corrosive alloy. Attempts to fix posterior wall (PW) acetabular fractures using other commercially available plating systems are limited in two ways 1) These plates must be bent intra-operatively and contoured to fit the curvature of the patient's hip socket, and 2) often multiple plates are utilized to ensure stability to the reduced fracture. The problem with bending the plates during the surgery is that bleeding is ongoing until the incision is sutured closed and the procedure halts and this increases the patient's time under anesthesia which increases the rate of complications such as the need for blood transfusions and adverse reactions to anesthesia. The second problem with the current plating methods is that these methods use multiple plates and screws which increases the cost of the orthopaedic procedure to the patient, and the use of multiple plates is time consuming and this increases complication rates for the patient as noted above. The present invention provides faster and better stabilization of a posterior wall acetabular hip socket fracture by way of reducing fixation to a single plate and eliminating the need for intra-operative plate bending to fit the hip socket anatomy.
In bone surgeries, such as for fixation (i.e., fusion and unification of fractured bones) of reduced and realigned bones after a displaced bone fracture, the bones, in order for their mending and healing to occur, must be reduced and be kept held tightly together, so that they may not be dislocated or re-displaced before their fusion is complete. For this holding, steel plates have long been used, along with, depending on the situation, a variety of devices such as metal, plates, rods, hooks, bolts (pedicle screws) and the like. Recently an advancement in metal plate design produced an option for the metal bone screws to screw into the plate as well as the bone these newer plates are referred to as locking plates. This invention presented herein incorporates locking screw concepts with the added features of being pre-contoured to fit the hip socket curvature and the ability to buttress a fracture in this region with a single plate as opposed to using 2 or 3 plates. This invention presented herein incorporates limited contact plating concepts with the added features of being pre-contoured to fit the hip socket curvature without the need for further manipulation in the operating room (OR) and the ability to buttress a fracture in this region with a single plate as opposed to using 2 or 3 plates.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a bone binding construct capable of securing the hip socket posterior wall (PW) bone fracture while avoiding or greatly minimizing the operative time and expense of current fixation methods.